


Stalemate

by Emjen_Enla



Series: Prompted Works [7]
Category: The Folk of the Air - Holly Black
Genre: Arguing, Cardan Greenbriar twists the truth, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Jude Duarte Lies, Speculation-Book 3: The Queen of Nothing, Vivi Duarte to the Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 00:15:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19262062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emjen_Enla/pseuds/Emjen_Enla
Summary: Jude and Cardan have a standoff in Vivi's kitchen. Written for the prompt "Don’t lie to me" on Tumblr.





	Stalemate

**Author's Note:**

> This is the last of the requests, so if anyone has more, I’ll reblog a prompt list on Tumblr, or you can request something else if you want. My Tumblr url is @emjenenla.

They faced each other across a claustrophobic kitchen which felt like infinite space. The stalemate had been going on for at least half an hour. After the first ten minutes, Vivi had taken Oak and left out of the house, making vague noises about getting dinner, and still they stared.

Perhaps surprisingly, perhaps unsurprisingly, it was Cardan who spoke first, “I suppose I should be thankful you didn’t just stab me.”

Jude breathed for what felt like the first time since she’d walked into Vivi’s kitchen to find the High King of Elfhame studying the contents of the refrigerator. She crossed her arms and lifted her chin. “I’m waiting for an excuse.”

“For why I’m here? I have none. I came to see you.”

“Not for that,” Jude snapped. “For marrying me and then throwing me out of Faerie like a fool mere hours later. You were planning that all along weren’t you? It was your revenge on me for maneuvering you onto the throne.”

“That is not true,” Cardan said tightly.

“Don’t lie to me,” Jude snarled, her teeth pulling off her lips.

“We both know I can’t!” Cardan shot back, looking every bit as feral as she did.

He was right, and Jude had known it. Of course, it was ridiculous to accuse a faerie of lying, but over the past few months she’d convinced herself that the whole of Cardan’s marriage offer had been an elaborate plot to get out from under her thumb and then discredit her. It was a lot easier to handle than admitting that the offer had been genuine and that for a few short hours she really had been High Queen of Elfhame. “Then what’s your real excuse?” she asked, lifting her chin.

“I’m sure you have all kinds of theories,” Cardan spat. “Maybe I realized you’d tied your own noose and decided to take advantage of it to become sole ruler of Elfhame! Maybe I knew I needed to separate myself from the person who conveniently removed one of my biggest political rivals before someone accused me of planning the whole thing! Maybe I knew that if you stayed in Faerie someone would string you up in revenge! Maybe I thought it wouldn’t take you quite this long to figure out how to come back! Maybe I was angry that I asked you not to murder my brother and  _ you went and did it anyway! _ ”

He broke off, panting for breath, and they stared at each other. To a faerie, the word “maybe” functioned like asking a question and rendered the statement as true by technicality. Anything Cardan had just said could have been true, and any of it could have been a lie. Jude puffed out a frustrated breath. “You couldn’t just quit it with the games, just this once?”

“You aren’t going to stop, so why should I?” Cardan challenged. “I’m not bound to you anymore, and you never forced me to tell you my true name. You have no power over me. We are equals in this for the first time.” He didn’t define what “this” was, possibly because he didn’t know any better than she did.

“I’m going to destroy you for this,” Jude growled.

“You hate me that much?” Cardan asked. His face was carefully blank; there no expression to suggest how he felt.

“Of course,” Jude snarled the lie out, refusing to let herself think about it too closely. “Just like you hate me.”

Cardan didn’t respond, which likely meant he couldn’t say he hated her. Jude added that to the list of things she couldn’t let herself think about. She needed to make him pay for what he had done to her, and she couldn’t do that if she let herself consider whatever feelings either of them held that weren’t total loathing.

The apartment door opened before either of them could say anything else. Vivi waltzed into the kitchen a moment later, carrying a few boxes of pizza. Oak followed at a more cautious pace. Jude’s stomach rumbled at the smell.

“Oh, look,” Vivi said with a bright but knowing smile. “You’re both still alive. No one’s even bleeding. Good for you both. Supper’s here now, though. Have you ever had pizza before, Cardan?” Cardan looked confused. “No?” she continued. “Well, you’ll love it. Get out some plates, will you, Jude? And don’t look at me like that.”

Jude looked from her sister to Cardan and back again. “Vivi,” she said through her teeth.

“Jude, I mean it,” Vivi said. “No one should commit mariticide on an empty stomach.”

There was a long, blank pause, then Cardan--who evidently was the only other person in the room who knew what mariticide was--folded down onto the floor in a fit of hysterical laughter.


End file.
